Archive for the Question of the Day category

Mike

I saw this article a while back about a survey of British drivers, stating that almost half of them name their car. I thought it was a little strange. I haven’t heard of many people naming their car. I never have. If I talk about my car I will sometimes refer to it as Tiggy, but that is more of just giving the Tiguan a nickname.

I don’t even know what I would name my car.

Does your car have a name? Why not give it a name, if you can think of something to name it.

Mike

Just last week I was thinking about places near home where someone could open a decent size company. (I know, kind of random, no reason to walk you down that path.) One thought I had was in the old Souderton High School which isn’t too far from home. Think about it, plenty of rooms and a big variety. You get an auditorium, a gym, a pool. What more could you ask for.

Today there is a story in the paper about how the recession has left the old high school land undeveloped. I imagine the goal is to tear it down and build houses. I say why not keep the school and do something with it.

Besides the company, it would also be a great place to film a bunch of high school tv dramas and horror movies.

What ideas do you have for this old school?

Mike

Is it wrong to assume that most of my female friends have dyed their hair? Not that it’s obvious or bad, I’m usually surprised to find out. I don’t have an eye for those type of things. I feel like it’s much more acceptable for girls. I’d be shocked if any of the guys have (for reasons other than Halloween or a sporting event, they still count, but not so shocked).

This is another QOTD where I ask a question that I haven’t done. I haven’t done everything so that’s a valid category of topics. I’ve never dyed my hair, but I still have thoughts of just doing it for doings sake. I’d go with dark red, but I’m open to suggestions. Not that it’s likely to happen since I’m going to be expected to be somewhat professional in school.

I do remember back in high school when the topic came up a lot. It was 10th grade when everyone was bleaching their hair. All the cool kids were doing it. I remember discussing it in AP Computer Science, as I mentioned, cool kids. My teacher in that class was really cool. I had her for both years of programming. I think she was a new math teacher who volunteered to teach the programming class. So in 9th grade, she was really learning while we were. One day we were discussing bleaching our hair in class. I’m not sure if I was serious or just talking it up because I thought it was ridiculous. Back then, I probably thought it was a good idea. The teacher came by and heard us talking about it and flipped out. She argued against it saying I would look terrible and that my hair was fine the way it was. I remember this really upsetting her the rest of class. I may have even asked her a question later in class and she was asking me to make sure I wasn’t seriously considering it. I didn’t really think about it after that, except to wonder, would it really be that upsettingly bad?

Mike

I used to when I first started driving, when I was paying with cash. As credit card payment became standard shortly after that, I stopped worrying about topping off. No real reason, I never thought about it. While I was getting gas this weekend there was a sign above the pump warning of the dangers of topping off. It looked like some sort of PSA campaign. It warned that topping off was a waste of gas and money and harmed the environment. I donâ€™t know how the system works, but that doesnâ€™t make any sense to me. I always figured that as long as there wasnâ€™t gas overflowing, it was in the tank and would be used eventually. I donâ€™t think someone would design a system where excess gas will just leak out.

Mike

I assumed people would have movies they always watched when they were home sick. I’m pretty sure this is just a thing in school. I probably watched Wizard of Oz or Disney movies when I was little and home sick. These days it’s whatever I have from Netflix. This week that was Funny People. If I would have thought a little more I probably would have watched Fight Club or Braveheart, I still haven’t watched them on Blu-ray. Those seem a little violent for a sick day. The only non-Pixar comedy I have on Blu-ray is Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Next sickness I should dust off my DVD cases.

Mike

I was probably in 2nd or 3rd grade. Over at Justinâ€™s house. He had Prodigy. Iâ€™m pretty sure there werenâ€™t even any graphics or pictures. I just remember being able to look up sports scores and standings. There may have even been sports trivia. I thought it was the most amazing thing ever, even though it wasnâ€™t much more than I could see in the newspaper. What we really went on there for was to find NBA Jam cheat codes.

One summer, a few years later, I spent some time with my cousin in Virginia. My uncle did something with computers at work so they always had a random machine around. The one they had when I was there had a modem. My cousin and I wanted to get on the internet. They didnâ€™t have AOL or anything. We assumed if you had a modem you could just dial up the internet. We didnâ€™t know the number for the internet. We may have looked in the phone book. We were unsuccessful. No surprise. I just love the thought of me asking, â€˜Whatâ€™s the phone number for the internet?â€™

It wasnâ€™t until I was 13 and had my first job that I actually got online for myself. I had my job at the field and I saved up so I could buy myself a computer and then paid for AOL (and I assume a 2nd phone line shortly after that). It took some convincing for my mom to let me get AOL, she didnâ€™t understand why anyone would need it. Itâ€™s hard to believe that my family didnâ€™t have broadband at the house until after I left for college. How did anything get done on dial-up?

Mike

Watching the Simpsons 20th Anniversary special they visited a few super fans who have filled their houses with Simpsons stuff. I was trying to think of the one toy that I’d want. I wanted it to be something a little unique but not too obscure. It also had to be a cool looking toy.

I came up with “The Homer”. The car Homer designed for his brother’s car company. I think I found a kit on a site for around $35. I’ll have to do some more looking. Found this image on the Wikipedia page …

Mike

Everyone knows mine, Topher Grace, but letâ€™s look at the history. It started early in high school, when That 70s Show first became popular. My friends from North Penn would always come over to hang out at my dadâ€™s during my every other weekend there. They started calling me Eric. I just assumed I behaved somewhat like him and it was my house that we always hung out at.

Later in high school when working at Genuardiâ€™s, my produce assistant manager had just seen Traffic. He would ask me multiple times per day if I was free-basing coke in the cooler. Still, I didnâ€™t really see it.

It finally clicked when Win a Date with Tad Hamilton was coming out. My step-dad saw a picture of Topher on the set of the movie in Entertainment Weekly. He was blown away. When I got to see it, I was also shocked. He looked exactly like me. You could have convinced me that it was me and I had forgotten the picture was taken. I did a quick search but couldnâ€™t find the picture. If you saw that movie you canâ€™t miss the similarities. He had the short, spikey, dark hair. On That 70s Show he always had the big hair, which is why I didnâ€™t see it. I went with Lindsay to see that movie, she wanted me to pretend I was him. It would have been a good way to meet people. This was also around the time when he cut back his 70s Show work. I always joked that I should have tried to contact the show and proposed that I come on as a replacement as his cousin. I shouldnâ€™t have just joked, that actually would have been a great idea.

Itâ€™s nice to have an easier answer to this question, but Iâ€™ve always worried that it will negatively impact my chances of being a famous actor.

Mike

A dealbreaker movie is a movie that you love and that your significant other has to like for the relationship to have a chance. Perhaps knowing which movie (or movies) that is could save a lot of time, money, and trouble.

The first movie that popped into my head was Field of Dreams. Incorporates baseball and a great story.

I like that choice but I feel like I should explore further. I immediately disqualified any sci-fi, fantasy, or action movies. The areas I’ll focus on are sports and comedy. Even sports might be eliminated. Movies like Field of Dreams and Rudy are loved by all. Meaning it doesn’t tell you much about a person. If you don’t like them, there is something wrong to begin with.

I think comedy is the way to go. It’s also the easiest to test. A serious movie someone can sit through silently and then at the end say, ‘Sure, I liked it.’ You have know way of knowing for sure. With a comedy it will be noticed if you are laughing the whole time sitting next to silence. The first movie I cam up with was Christmas Vacation, but that also falls into the category above, any normal person likes that movie.

It has to be something along the lines of Mel Brooks, Farrelly Brothers, or Naked Gun. The King of those movies is Mel Brooks and my favorite of his is Robin Hood: Men In Tights. So I’m going to go with Field of Dreams and Men In Tights to cover my bases.

While looking through my DVDs to figure this out I actually found a TV Show that would do the job better than any of these movies. Arrested Development. It’s one of my favorite shows of all time but a great test. The show doesn’t tell you when to laugh and you really have to know what’s going on and remember what has happened. There’s no way you can cheat on that test.

Or maybe, we just watch Jackass: The Movie and if she still talks to me, it’s meant to be.